Academic Research

Aday, Sean, and Cluverius, John, and Livingston, Steven. As Goes the Statue, So Goes the War: The Emergence of the Victory Frame in Television Coverage of the Iraq War. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media; Washington, Aug 2005. Vol. 49, Iss. 3; pg. 314

This study analyzes how broadcast news coverage of the toppling of a statue of Saddam Hussein on April 9, 2003, employed a "victory" frame that crowded out other potential news narratives from that day, notably the heavy fighting continuing throughout Baghdad and other parts of Iraq. A second level of analysis comparing the news agendas of the 2 networks in the week prior to and the week after April 9th suggests that the victory frame had the effect of dramatically reducing the amount of battle-related stories.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Aday, Sean. Chasing the Bad News: An Analysis of 2005 Iraq and Afghanistan War Coverage on NBC and Fox News Channel. Journal of Communication; Mar 2010, Vol. 60 Issue 1, p144-164, 21p

This study analyzes all stories aired on and Fox News Channel's during 2005 about the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and compares that coverage with real-world indicators to address an important question: Did the news media over-report bad news from these conflicts, as claimed by the Bush administration and as one might expect given research into the press' negativity bias? This study finds that while both channels focused a fair amount on negative storylines, overall the news actually underplayed bad news from both countries. Fox News was much more sympathetic to the administration than NBC, suggesting that scholars should consider Fox as alternative, rather than mainstream, media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Al-Arian, Laila. Media Coverage of the War in Iraq. The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Washington: Jul/Aug 2004. Vol. 23, Iss. 6; pg. 86, 2 pgs

At Washington DC's Middle East Institute on Jun 2, veteran journalists Claude Salhani and Hisham Melhem analyzed the media coverage of the Iraq war in America and the Arab world. Salhani opened his talk by noting that there is now a proliferation of Arab satellite stations in the Middle East--many of which are accused of "over-coverage" of events in the Arab world while Melhem criticized reporters in the Arab world for emphasizing the destructive aspects of the war--the civilian casualties and destruction of infrastructure. Al-Arian reports. [ABSTRACT]

Althaus, Scott, and Coe, Kevin. The Role of News Coverage in Shaping Public Support for War. Conference Papers. International Communication Association; 2007 Annual Meeting, 1-1,

When politicians and citizens are asked to identify what causes public support for war to change over time, news coverage about the war almost always comes up as a likely suspect. Yet scholarship on this topic has almost completely neglected the role of news coverage in changing levels of public support, despite the widespread assumption that the standard factors used to explain public support-numbers of casualties, costs and benefits of the conflict, dramatic "rally" events, and whether American forces appear to be winning or losing-are conveyed through news coverage to the mass public. Our study is the first to directly test the impact of news coverage on public support for war across a range of major military conflicts. After controlling for casualties and the passage of time, we find that increases in support for war tend to occur during periods with relatively high levels of prominent news coverage about the war. We also find that the intensity of war coverage tends to have a larger impact on support for war than the evaluative tone of that news coverage. We conclude that the dominant opinion process underlying support for major American wars seems to be neither persuasion nor attitude reinforcement, but rather the tendency for war news to activate supportive social identities. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arraf, Jane. Disappearing Iraq. Columbia Journalism Review; Sep-Oct 2009, Vol. 48 Issue 3, p29-31, 3p

The article discusses the experiences of journalists covering the Iraq War. Relations between the press and U.S. armed forces, which were relatively open and candid in 2007-2008 when General David Petraeus was commander, have become strained, with reporters denied an increasing amount of information and access to U.S. troops. The declining number of correspondents in Iraq due to declining U.S. public interest in the war and the financial problems of mass media is examined. It is noted that many U.S. armed forces and State Department personnel live inside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, where they have little if any exposure to the conditions of ordinary Iraqis. [ABSTRACT]

Brasted, Monica. Protest in the Media. Peace Review. Palo Alto: 2005. Vol. 17 (4); p. 383

In the early months of the war in Iraq, there appeared to be little opposition to U.S. involvement, at least in the American media. There is a growing peace movement in the U.S. and around the world. The issue for investigation is how this movement has been portrayed in the media. [ABSTRACT]

Brian, Patrick, and Thrall, A. Trevor. Beyond Hegemony: Classical Propaganda Theory and Presidential Communication Strategy After the Invasion of Iraq. Mass Communication & Society; Winter2007, Vol. 10 Issue 1: 95-118

The "hegemonic" tradition argues that the president enjoys unparalleled power to manage news and opinion during war. This approach has dominated political communication literature on war and the media for over a generation. The war with Iraq, however, provides a major challenge to conventional wisdom. We believe that classical propaganda theory provides a useful corrective to the hegemonic perspective and offers a better way to understand the Bush administration's propaganda strategy and its impact on public opinion. Using a combination of content analysis, opinion data, and analysis of the administration's Iraq-related public addresses, we argue that the president neither dominated war news nor managed public opinion in the manner predicted by hegemonic theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carpentier, Nico. Revisiting analyses of media-war relationships in times of contingency and fluidity. The European Journal of Communication Research; Dec 2006, Vol. 31 Issue 4: 469-480

The review essay deals with two recent publications on media-war relationships: Tumber and Palmer's ‘Media at war. The Iraq crisis’ (2004) and Thussu and Freedman's ‘War and the media. Reporting conflict 24/7’ (2003/2005). Two questions are raised in this essay. First, is it still relevant to look back at two publications on media-war relationships when (at least some of) the wars they focus on have fundamentally altered? And even more importantly, is there a convincing reason for actually reading them? Answering these questions allows for a more fundamental reflection on the importance of academic activities in relationship to issues of media and war. Three answers are suggested: the importance and necessity of documenting, analyzing and archiving war, the facilitation of academic and societal dialogue on the issues of war, and the analyses of the political, economical, cultural, technological and ideological contexts that transcend singular wars. Especially the last domain is considered crucial. Although each war is characterized by a high degree of specificity and contingency, which unavoidably influences and alters the media-war-military relationships, the contextual analyses enable uncovering the presence of more structural aspects in these relationships. More specifically, these contextual analyses teach us most about the role of power and ideology in the representational processes that deal with war. These analyses again show the powerlessness of media and media professionals to escape from the dichotomized ideological model of war and from the (direct or indirect) legitimization of what Knightley termed ‘the institution of war’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carpenter, Serena. U.S. Elite And Non-Elite Newspapers' Portrayal Of The Iraq War: A Comparison Of Frames And Source Use. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. Columbia: Winter 2007. Vol. 84 (4); 761

Stories front two elite and four non-elite newspapers were content analyzed for the use of sources and frames over a three-year period during and after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The study used frames previously applied in studies conducted on elite publications. Results indicate that the use of frames and the inclusion of international, national, and local sources differed significantly; however, the inclusion of military sources was nearly balanced in elite and non-elite newspapers. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Cortell, Andrew, and Eisinger, Robert, and Althaus, Scott. Why Embed?: Explaining the Bush Administration's Decision to Embed Reporters in the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. American Behavioral Scientist; Jan2009, Vol. 52 Issue 5, p657-677, 21p

This article explores the sources of the Bush administration's decision to embed reporters in military units to cover real-time, frontline combat for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In doing so, the authors have two primary goals. First, the administration's embrace of the embedded reporter program is explained by reference to events transpiring during the war in Afghanistan, the communication technologies at the disposal of the media, and the policymaking context in which the U.S. Department of Defense determined its media-management strategy. Second, the structure of the embedded reporter program is delineated, and it is shown that the administration sought to provide domestic and international media from coalition and noncoalition countries with as much frontline access as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dimitrova, Daniela. Episodic Frames Dominate Early Coverage Of Iraq War in the NYTimes.com. Newspaper Research Journal. Athens: Fall 2006. Vol. 27, (4); 79

In cases of war, for example, news media can focus on victory and successful military strategy. Based on U.S. television news coverage, Iyengar14 developed a typology for two types of generic news frames-episodic and thematic. [ABSTRACT]

Dodson, Giles. Australian journalism and war. Journalism Studies; Feb2010, Vol. 11 Issue 1, p99-114, 16p

This paper presents an original study of Australian journalistic professionalism as observed during the Iraq invasion, 2003. Through an analysis of both in-depth interviews conducted with Australian journalists reporting from Iraq and news discourse produced by Australian journalists at Central Command and “embedded”, it is argued that professionalism provides the normative framework used by war journalists to produce accounts and make sense of war. In this sense professionalism serves as a “regime of truth”, which bounds the journalistic possibilities in reporting war and restrains the capacity of journalists to provide critical or reflexive examinations of military operations or media-military relations. Drawing on interview and news-report material the paper demonstrates that the professional discourse furthermore serves to justify and legitimate at times problematic journalistic practice and meaning construction, tending to obscure the functional role played by journalism within contemporary war administration and military strategy. Elaborating the concept of the professional ideology I argue that professionalism operates as a form of ideological fantasy, which overlooks the always already ideological nature of discourses. Professionalism here both militarises journalism and conversely journalises the military, while limiting war correspondents' awareness of this problematic aspect of their central legitimating ethos.

Eid, Mahmoud. The 2003 war on Iraq: A global media-politics convergence. Journal of International Communication; 2008, Vol. 14 Issue 1, p157-164, 8p

The article reviews three books, "Bring 'Em On: Media and Politics in the Iraq War," edited by Lee Artz and Yahya R. Kamalipour, "Global War-Local Views: Media Images of the Iraq War," edited by Stig A. Nohrstedt and Rune Ottosen, and "U.S. and the Others: Global Media Images on The War on Terror," edited by Stig A. Nohrstedt and Rune Ottosen.

Entman, Robert M., and Livingston, Steven, and Kim, Jennie. Doomed to Repeat: Iraq News, 2002-2007. American Behavioral Scientist; Jan 2009, Vol. 52 Issue 5, p689-708, 20p

This article describes a tendency of news to isolate war policy outcomes from each other and from strategic goals and official responses. These predictable patterns of press coverage and policy developments are referred to as accountability gaps. We argue that professional norms and commercial pressures overwhelm whatever hesitancy news organizations have to alter their organizational and professional behavioral patterns that lead to predictable reoccurrences of accountability gaps. Habitual deference to White House officials means that positive frames are likely to prevail, regardless of conditions on the ground, while declining attention to the costs of war as they accumulate—and becoming less newsworthy-diminishes the weight of counterframes. As casualties and other consequences of policy in Iraq became routine, their news value diminished. As casualties became routine and other costs of war mounted in ways difficult to convey, official good news frames tended to dominate news narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Esser, Frank. Metacoverage of Mediated Wars: How the Press Framed the Role of the News Media and of Military News Management in the Iraq Wars of 1991 and 2003. American Behavioral Scientist; Jan 2009, Vol. 52 Issue 5, p709-734, 26p

Metacoverage is understood as a discursive outcome of structural mediatization processes in modern media wars. It is defined as news stories that report on war topics in their connection to the role of news journalism or political public relations. A content analysis of press coverage on the last two Gulf Wars shows that journalists used four frames to describe the role of the news media and of military news management; these frames are called conduit, strategy, personalization, and accountability. Five leading newspapers from Germany, chosen for their detached stance in both international conflicts, displayed a marked increase in metacoverage from the first Iraq war, in 1991, compared with the second, in 2003. Journalists tended to write themselves into the story more often and portrayed the news media involvement in increasingly more active terms. Although the news media were presented as a consequential protagonist (strategy frame), their coverage also endeavored to assist citizens to reach an educated judgment on the relationship of war and media (accountability frame). Consequences for political communication and public diplomacy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fahmy, Shahira, and Kim, Daekyung. Picturing the Iraq War: Constructing the Image of War in the British and US Press. International Communication Gazette; Dec 2008, Vol. 70 Issue 6, p443-462, 20p

This study reports the findings of a visual content analysis of 1305 Iraq War-related photographs appearing in the US press, represented by The New York Times, and the British press, represented by The Guardian. Overall, the two newspapers visually portrayed the Iraq War differently. Further, the more spontaneous or direct coverage of actually ongoing events were rare at best, and were exclusively found in photographs that ran in The Guardian. One aspect of the pictorial coverage, however, seems unprecedented: the emphasis on the human cost of the war focusing on Iraqi civilians. Moreover, images of loss of military life were scarce but still available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fahmy, Shahira, and Johnson, Thomas J. How We Performed: Embedded Journalists' Attitudes And Perceptions Towards Covering The Iraq War, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. Columbia: Summer 2005. Vol. 82, Iss. 2; pg. 301

A survey of embedded journalists suggests an overall positive perception of embedded reporting. While most embeds agreed their reports provided a narrow slice of the conflict, they still had a positive view of their work. Respondents also noted their stories differed from the stories of non-embedded journalists and perceived both types of reporting as invaluable. Further, embeds' attitudes towards the war, age, professional experience, and online reporting were correlated with perceived performance. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Fleischer, Kristin. They Said What? Exploring Trends of Source Use within Frames of the 2003 Iraq War. Conference Papers - National Communication Association; 2008, p1, 33p

This paper explores trends in source use during coverage of the 2003 Iraq War. Using Entman's (2004) cascading activation model, a period of divided public opinion was chosen to provide opportunity for elite dissent. A quantitative content analysis of The New York Times from was performed. Findings revealed trends in the propensity of individual as opposed to organizational sources, source gender, frequency of certain frames and the types of sources used to support these frames. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fox, Julia R, and Park, Byungho. The "I" of Embedded Reporting: An Analysis of CNN Coverage of the "Shock and Awe" Campaign, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. Washington: Mar 2006. Vol. 50, Iss. 1; pg. 36

This study compares the use of personal pronouns in embedded and nonembedded reports during CNN coverage of the "Shock and Awe" campaign and investigates the context in which personal pronouns were used by embedded reporters. As predicted, there was more frequent use of personal pronouns by embedded reporters than by nonembedded reporters. However, the reports were void of personal values and ideologies, suggesting that journalists and scholars need to rethink the concept of objectivity in general terms of broad standards of impartial inquiry, rather than as absolute adherence to traditional conventions and techniques such as the use of impersonal, third-person writing style. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Freedman, Des. 'Smooth Operator?' The Propaganda Model and Moments of Crisis. Westminster Papers in Communication & Culture; Nov 2009, Vol. 6 Issue 2, p59-72

The propaganda model is a powerful tool for explaining systematic flaws in media coverage. But does it explain the cracks and tensions within the commercial media that are capable of arising at moments of political crisis and elite disagreement? To what extent does the model privilege a flawless structuralist account of media power at the expense of focusing on contradictory dynamics inside the capitalist media? This article looks at a key moment where critical media content was generated by a mainstream media organization: the coverage of the run-up to the Iraq War in the British tabloid paper, the Daily Mirror in 2003. It reflects on the consequences of such a moment for resisting corporate media power and asks whether it suggests the need for a revision of the propaganda model or, rather, provides further validation of its relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groeling, Tim, and Baum, Matthew. Tidings of Battle: Polarizing Media and Public Support for the Iraq War. Conference Papers - International Communication Association; 2008 Annual Meeting, p1-40, 41p, 6 Charts, 3 Graphs

The causes and consequences of public support for overseas applications of military force is a subject of longstanding scholarly debate. "Event-based" explanations hold that public support for a military engagement depends primarily on its success, casualties, or the goals in a given conflict. Yet, recent research argues that perceptions concerning nature and success/failure of military engagements are often endogenous to the domestic political circumstances surrounding them, including the efforts of political and media elites to frame events to their own advantage. In this study, we develop and test a series of hypotheses concerning media coverage of, and public opinion regarding, the war in Iraq. We hypothesize that journalists' preferences lead traditional news programs to disproportionately feature members of the presidential party criticizing their president and, to a lesser extent, the opposition party praising him. Because they represent costly speech, intra-party attacks are highly credible to consumers, as is opposition party praise. In contrast, in more ideologically narrow "new media" outlets, we anticipate that the story choices will differ substantially. We test our hypotheses using a comprehensive content analysis of all coverage of the war from September 2004 through February 2007 appearing on the CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News and FOX's Special Report with Brit Hume, as well as an expert survey on conditions in Iraq and national surveys of Iraq War attitudes broken down by party. We find significant differences in both the composition and impact of partisan messages on public opinion across outlets. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groshek, Christopher. Shifting Dissent: Media Coverage of the Decision to Go to War in Iraq. Conference Papers -- International Communication Association; 2005 Annual Meeting, New York, NY:1-27

The article evaluates the media coverage before and after the U.S. Congress passed the resolution that authorized the use of military force in Iraq. There was a sharp decline in critical coverage after Congress passed the resolution. However, the press continued to report substantial levels of opposition. The results suggest a more nuanced relationship between the news media and the government than frequently reported.

Harmon, Mark, and Muenchen, Robert. Semantic framing in the build-up to the Iraq war: FOX v CNN and other U.S. broadcast news programs. ETC: A Review of General Semantics; Jan 2009, Vol. 66 Issue 1, p12-26, 15p

The authors conduct an exhaustive analysis of broadcast news transcripts from the one-year anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks to the US. congressional authorization of force against Iraq. News organizations overall used framing words and phrases complementary to the Bush Administration push for war. Fox News, even more than CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNBC, and public broadcasting, emphasized pro-war framing terms. Fox News over a longer time frame also generally trailed CNN in stories covering the absence of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, the lack of a pre-war link between Iraq and al-Qaeda, majority international public opinion about the war and the number of American casualties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hart, Peter. Iraq All Over Again. Extra!; Dec 2009, Vol. 22 Issue 12, p7-7

The article discusses the way in which the media handle the allegations regarding the nuclear program in Iran. It states that the media have appeared to perform their job poorly on the issue similar to what they did during the Iraq War in 2003. It notes that the press coverage on the nuclear weapon concerns has just mislead the viewers because they are treating the allegations as if that they unquestionably existed when it soon turned out to be imaginary.

Hart, Peter. Spinning the Surge. Extra!; Sep-Oct2008, Vol. 21 Issue 5, p16-19

The article focuses on the lack of attention and discussion given by the media on the Iraq war in the U.S. The scarcity of coverage and the lesser content on media's discussion on the war is considered to be disturbing due to the significant attention that they gave on the presidential election in November 2008. According to a poll, the story on the Iraq war between January and May 2007 were only 20% on the news hole, showed a 4% decline in the first three months of 2008, while the presidential campaign occupied 43%. Moreover, CBS News Inc. correspondent Lora Logan claimed that the media's decisions to treat the Iraq war as an afterthought led correspondents to speak out publicly. INSET: Meanwhile, in Iraq....

Hayes, Danny, and Guardino, Matt. Whose Views Made the News? Media Coverage and the March to War in Iraq. Political Communication; Jan-Mar 2010, Vol. 27 Issue 1, p59-87, 29p

Criticism of the news media's performance in the months before the 2003 Iraq War has been profuse. Scholars, commentators, and journalists themselves have argued that the media aided the Bush administration in its march to war by failing to air a wide-ranging debate that offered analysis and commentary from diverse perspectives. As a result, critics say, the public was denied the opportunity to weigh the claims of those arguing both for and against military action in Iraq. We report the results of a systematic analysis of every ABC, CBS, and NBC Iraq-related evening news story—1,434 in all—in the 8 months before the invasion (August 1, 2002, through March 19, 2003). We find that news coverage conformed in some ways to the conventional wisdom: Bush administration officials were the most frequently quoted sources, the voices of anti-war groups and opposition Democrats were barely audible, and the overall thrust of coverage favored a pro-war perspective. But while domestic dissent on the war was minimal, opposition from abroad—in particular, from Iraq and officials from countries such as France, who argued for a diplomatic solution to the standoff—was commonly reported on the networks. Our findings suggest that media researchers should further examine the inclusion of non-U.S. views on high-profile foreign policy debates, and they also raise important questions about how the news filters the communications of political actors and refracts—rather than merely reflects—the contours of debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herber, Lori, and Filak, Vincent. Iraq War Coverage Differs In U.S., German Papers. Newspaper Research Journal. Athens: Summer 2007. Vol. 28 (3); 37

In Germany, however, 87 percent opposed the war in Iraq.1 Research regarding how war is covered found that reporters could alter the public's perception of the issue by emphasizing select words, innuendos or sources.2 By portraying UN weapons inspectors in a positive light and George Bush in a negative light, German newspapers further reinforced the anti-war sentiment in Germany.3 Conversely, by focusing on the U.S. military's achievements, American newspapers would thus prompt the American public to view military success as the most newsworthy aspect of war.4 As the Iraq War transitioned to a peacekeeping and rebuilding mission, attitudes regarding the presence of U.S. troops in that region began to be a larger question for citizens around the world. Research regarding the impact of embedded reporters has been limited, but studies have found that embedded reporters altered the tone of coverage to reflect a biased view in favor of the military or that the reporters were only able to provide a very shallow pool of information.15 Certain television reporters even used the term "we" as they chronicled American soldiers in the desert,16 projecting a general sense of a collective identity among the troops and journalists stationed in Iraq.\n Both papers clearly relied on official sources, but FAZ was less constrained in the types of officials they consulted. [ABSTRACT]

Holt, Lanier. The Second Casualty? A Look at Objectivity in the Second Iraq War. Conference Papers - International Communication Association; 2009 Annual Meeting, p1-24, 25p

This analysis builds on existing research regarding media objectivity and war coverage. It specifically looks to see how (and if) objectivity changed between the New York Times and the London Times newspapers during the current Iraq war, and the effect the July 7th subway bombings had on objectivity in the London Times. This content analysis finds that both papers tended to present a more objective - meaning the non-Coalition Forces side of the confliction - with the London Times often providing the more objective account. Further, the subway bombings proved to have a negligible, at best, effect on the London Times's coverage. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hus, Gorill, and Wiggen, Guri. U.S. Censorship Is 'Rampant,' Top Broadcaster Says. Global Information Network, New York; Jul 3, 2003: 1

[John Pilger] and [Robert Fisk] both spoke to IPS on visits to Oslo. Pilger came to receive the $100,000 Sophie Prize for 30 years of work to expose deception in the media. Fisk came to give a lecture at Fritt Ord, a Norwegian media foundation.
"The most important soldiers in the Iraq war were not the troops, but the journalists and the broadcasters," Pilger says. "Lies were transformed into themes for public debate. The true reason was of course - as we all now know - not to rid Iraq of Saddam Hussein and remove their alleged weapons of mass destruction, but to achieve the real Anglo-American aim; to capture an oil rich country and to control the Middle East."
Coupled with the self-censorship is the censorship being imposed by the U.S. on the Iraqi media, Fisk says. This too is not being reported adequately in the United States. The U.S. administration has set up a committee for censorship in Iraq, which means the Iraqi press can publish anything to remind people about the terror of Saddam, but is not allowed to write freely about current events crucial to them and their future. [ABSTRACT]

Johansen, Morgen, and Joslyn, Mark. Political persuasion during times of crisis: the effects of education and news media on citizens’ factual information about Iraq. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly; Autumn 2008, Vol. 85 Issue 3, p591-608, 18p

Education is a powerful cognitive resource that undermines the persuasiveness of political propaganda. However, little is known about the conditions that weaken this resource. This study examines whether lopsided media coverage preceding and during the initial phases of the Iraq War provided an information environment sufficient to overcome the positive effects of education, finding that for viewers of the unbalanced and partial CBS and Fox, the educated were as likely to be misinformed about Iraq as the uneducated. Findings are discussed within the context of persuasion theory and the watchdog role of the news media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jordan, John W. Disciplining the Virtual Home Front: Mainstream News and the Web During the War in Iraq. Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies; Sep 2007, Vol. 4 (3): 276-302

Considered by many to be the first war of the Information Age, the 2003 War in Iraq provided a unique opportunity for observing how the American mainstream press defined the Web's journalistic value and how it reacted to the competition from alternative online news sources. In an attempt to exert control over the Web as a journalistic space, the mainstream press used rhetorics of "professionalism" to discipline online news seekers into conforming to the definition of "news" favored by the mainstream press. This essay analyzes these tactics and their implications for the Web's journalistic potential, and concludes with a call for a more collaborative online journalism that maintains journalistic credibility while also incorporating a wider variety of perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keith, Susan, and Schwalbe, Carol, and Silcock, William. Visualizing Cross-Media Coverage: Picturing War Across Platforms During the U.S.-Led Invasion of Iraq. Atlantic Journal of Communication; Jan-Mar 2009, Vol. 17 Issue 1, p1-18, 18p

The journalistic practice of convergence—media outlets sharing similar content across platforms—has sometimes been criticized as leading to homogenization of the news. Yet few studies have attempted to determine how much content is duplicated among convergence partners or, more generally, among print, broadcast, and online outlets. This study adds to our understanding of content differences among media platforms by comparing visual coverage of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in print, on television, and on the Internet. The data from 1,822 war-related images show that these media platforms generally differed significantly in their visual coverage of the 2003 invasion. This study, grounded in Shoemaker and Reese's hierarchy of influences on media content, suggests that differences were largely driven by separate platform routines and norms. In the few cases where content converged in a visual monologue, extramedia influences, such as government action, seem likely to have influenced image selection.

Keith, Susan, and Schwalbe, Carol. Women and Visual Depictions of the U.S.-Iraq War in Print and Online Media. Visual Communication Quarterly; Jan 2010, Vol. 17 Issue 1, p4-17, 14p

Both American and Iraqi women were affected by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq by coalition forces in March 2003. Yet women were shown in less than one-fifth of the 480 war-related photographs in a sample from 18 U.S. daily newspapers, three U.S. news magazines, and those publications' websites. In addition, Iraqi women were less likely to appear than U.S. women, partly because of the news media's intense focus on injured American soldier Jessica Lynch during the early weeks of the war. This study suggests that these findings may have been the result of both media routines, as described by Shoemaker and Reese, and the tendency of the U.S. media to engage in Orientalism, as described by Said. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Klein, Adam, and Byerly, Carolyn, and McEachern, Tony. Counterframing Public Dissent: An Analysis of Antiwar Coverage in the U.S. Media. Critical Studies in Media Communication; Oct 2009, Vol. 26 Issue 4, p331-350, 20p

This research sought to determine how the U.S. news media reported on public dissent in the U.S./Iraq War campaign in the months surrounding the Congressional midterm elections of 2006. In total, 89 news stories of antiwar coverage from 11 national news sources were analyzed using mixed research methods. The study found that news on Iraq War dissent was largely vocalized by public antiwar protestors and active military/war veterans. These war critics presented new counterframes to the original war story, which earlier research showed had been framed by the Bush administration. Counterframes collectively characterized the war story as “illegal,” “immoral,” and “based on lies.” These public-driven messages also replaced the elite sourcing (of earlier coverage) with the views of non-elites, that is, ordinary citizens. Such counterframes emerged primarily through journalist-selected news quotes about the Iraq War that amplified themes of White House accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kolmer, Christian, and Semetko, Holli. Framing the Iraq War: Perspectives from American, U.K., Czech, German, South African, and Al-Jazeera News. American Behavioral Scientist; Jan 2009, Vol. 52 Issue 5, p643-656, 14p

Some of the key findings are reported from a cross-national comparative content analysis of the flagship main evening TV news programs in five countries, as well as of the flagship Arab-language TV news on the Al-Jazeera network, during March and April 2003, the "official" 3-4-week period of the war in Iraq, to investigate the similarities and differences in the framing of the war in TV news. Despite some differences among networks within countries, the study reveals major lines of cross-national difference in the subtopics emphasized in the coverage, the tone of the coverage of the opposing sides, and the volume of news devoted to the Allies (the United Kingdom and the United States). It is concluded that the reporting of the war was conditioned by the national and international contexts in which the news was produced. The cross-country comparisons raise serious questions about the credibility and impartiality of TV news in the reporting of the war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Konstantinidou, Christina. The spectacle of suffering and death: the photographic representation of war in Greek newspapers. Visual Communication; May 2008, Vol. 7 Issue 2, p143-169, 27p

This article analyses the visual construction of human suffering in war, with special reference to the signifying practices of the photographs published in Greek newspapers during the Second Iraq War. The author carries out a socio-semiotic analysis, arguing that the overall construction of the Second Iraq War in the Greek press—illustrated by two case studies which are examined in detail—combines contradictory elements and assumptions. Representations of the war are 'framed' by the 'overpoliticization' of the Greek public sphere and the dominant political culture synthesizing themes of 'anti-Americanism', 'anti-globalization' and 'pro-Third Worldism', but also a particular version of what Said called 'Orientalism'. More specifically, the insistence on spectacular images of suffering, and the combination of a humanitarian discourse of compassion for the innocent distant victims of war' with populist and Greek Christian Orthodox conceptualizations of the self are constitutive elements of the newspapers' signifying practices, which aid the Greek press to be critical of the hegemonic western discourse regarding the Second Iraq War without, however, slipping to the other side of 'Orientalist binary oppositions'. On the contrary, this persistence on the humanitarian discourse of compassion towards victims is pivotal in identifying with the western moral virtues of 'civilized' humanity.

Kull, Steven. The Press and Public Misperceptions About the Iraq War. Nieman Reports. Cambridge: Summer 2004. Vol. 58 (2); pg. 64

During the summer of 2003, the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, together with the polling firm Knowledge Networks, conducted a large-scale study of US public perceptions and misperceptions related to the Iraq War, with a special eye to determining what role the press might have played in this process. Kull presents this study, which raises compelling questions about the role and practice of the press in a democratic society. The research found three widespread misperceptions, among others, 49% believed that the US had found evidence that Iraq was working closely with al-Qaeda. [ABSTRACT]

Kumar, Deepa. Media, War, and Propaganda: Strategies of Information Management During the 2003 Iraq War. Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies; March 2006, Vol. 3  (1): 48-69

It is now widely acknowledged that the Bush administration used faulty and false information to justify the 2003 war on Iraq, and that the mainstream media, by not adequately investigating the case for war, assisted with the project. In this paper, I outline the particular strategies employed by the media–military industrial complex to ensure a dominance of pro-war arguments in the public sphere. I conclude by arguing that the failure of the media in the US to meet the democratic needs of this society places enormous responsibility on intellectuals to produce scholarship critical of the new imperialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lin, Carolyn. Public Opinion and the Iraq War: The Role of News Perceptions and Core Values. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Dresden International Congress Centre, Dresden, Germany, Jun 16, 2006

Audience perception of news coverage can have an influence on how they perceive news events and draw meanings from them; such influences may also vary depending on the events and the journalistic treatment of those events. The present study explored the relations between the public’s receptivity towards the Iraq war coverage, perceived news coverage quality and support for the war. In explicating these relations, the public’s sense of core values that could help drive the rallying effects was also be examined in relation to the constructs of news frames, news coverage quality and support for the war. Results indicate that Iraq War news frames, including “Iraq as a security threat” and “rationale for war,”—along with sense of core values and news coverage quality—were all significantly related to public support for the war. These results were further analyzed by a structural equation model, with additional discussion provided. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lin, Carolyn. Selective News Exposure, Personal Values, and Support for the Iraq War. Communication Quarterly; Jan 2009, Vol. 57 Issue 1, p18-34, 17p, 3 Charts, 2 Graphs

News media coverage of the Iraq war plays a significant role in informing the public about the war event itself. This study examined whether exposure to different news sources had an impact on the public's opinion on the war starting from the initial military-action phase through the early postwar period. It also explored how the public's patriotic values, political orientations, and religious convictions influenced the relations between their news source exposure and support for (or opposition to) the war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lindner, Andrew. Among the Troops: Seeing the Iraq War Through Three Journalistic Vantage Points. Social Problems; Feb 2009, Vol. 56 Issue 1, p21-48, 28p

The article discusses the mass media coverage of U.S. Operation Iraqi Freedom by journalists. A content analysis is provided concerning the quality and effectiveness of three types of journalists involved with that war including journalists that the U.S. government embedded in military units, journalists that were stationed in Baghdad, Iraq, and journalists that were independent and were thus free to roam. Topics include news coverage which emphasized a soldier's experience in war while downplaying the invasion's effects on Iraqi people.

Luther, Catherine A, and Miller, Mark M. Framing Of The 2003 U.S.-Iraq War Demonstrations: An Analysis Of News And Partisan Texts, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. Columbia: Spring 2005. Vol. 82, Iss. 1; pg. 78, 19 pgs

This study examines press coverage of pro- and anti-war demonstrations before and during the 2003 U.S.-led Iraq war. Computer analysis revealed the existence of partisan master frames in texts by pro- and anti-war organizational groups, and that news articles about each group reflected the frames of the group in question more so than the opposing group's frames. An examination of cues of legitimization and delegitimization in the news articles showed that cue words of delegitimization were used more in anti-war articles than in pro-war articles. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Matthews, Louise. The latest casualty: Phillip Knightley on media failure. Pacific Journalism Review; Sep2003, Vol. 9: 22-25,

Provides the media context for the U.S.-Iraq war in 2003. Experiences of journalist Phillip Knightley on media failure during his coverage of the war; Patriotic and journalistic tensions set up during wartime; Temptation for journalists to support their country to the detriment of their profession. [ABSTRACT]

Mellor, Noha. War as a moral discourse. International Communication Gazette; Aug 2009, Vol. 71 Issue 5, p400-427, 28p

The debate surrounding the coverage of the Iraq War in Arab and western news media has pinpointed the ethical role of the news media in the mediation of suffering. This article analyses the mechanism of mediating war in the front-page articles from four pan-Arab newspapers, printed during the war in 2003. The article draws on Boltanski's discussion of emotional politics or what he terms politics of pity, the aim of which is to trigger sympathy for the Other. The news texts included here are analysed according to their rhetorical strategies and to whether they aim at consolidating a certain ethical stance towards the war. Finally, the article attempts to answer the question of whether this coverage has contributed with rational arguments to the general public debate about the war, thereby fulfilling its role as mediator to the pan-Arab polity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Miller, Judith. The New York Times, and the Propaganda Model. Journalism Studies; Nov 2004, Vol. 5 (4): 435-449

An assessment of Herman and Chomsky's 1988 five-filter propaganda mode! suggests it is mainly valuable for identifying areas in which researchers should look for evidence of collaboration (whether intentional or otherwise) between mainstream media and the propaganda aims of the ruling establishment The model does not identify methodologies for determining the relative weight of independent filters in different contexts, something that would be useful in its future development There is a lack of precision in the characterization of some of the filters. The model privileges the structural factors that determine propagandized news selection, and therefore eschews or marginalizes internationality. This paper extends the model to include the "buying out" of journalists or their publications by intelligence and related special interest organizations. It applies the extended six-filter model to controversies over reporting by The New York Times of the build-up towards the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the issue of weapons of mass destruction in general, and the reporting of The New York Times correspondent Judith Miller in particular, in the context of broader critiques of US mainstream media war coverage. The controversies helped elect evidence of the operation of some filters of the propaganda model, including dependence on official sources, fear of flak, and ideological convergence. The paper finds that the filter of routine news operations needs to be counterbalanced by its opposite, namely non-routine abuses of standard operating procedures. While evidence of the operation of other filters was weaker, this is likely due to difficulties of observability, as there are powerful deductive reasons for maintaining all six filters within the framework of media propaganda analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moyer-Gusé, Emily, and Smith, Stacy L. Children and the War on Iraq: Developmental Differences in Fear Responses to Television News Coverage. Media Psychology; 2006, Vol. 8 (3): 213-237

The purpose of this study was to examine age-related differences in children's responses to news coverage of the War on Iraq. To this end, a random sample of 161 parents of 5- to 17-year-olds in Ingham County, Michigan was surveyed about their child's fear responses to the war and patterns of exposure. Using developmental theory and research, age-related hypotheses were advanced. The results show that 13- to 17-year-olds reportedly watched more news coverage of the war and experienced greater fear/concern than did 5- to 8-year-olds. Also consistent with predictions, younger children were reportedly more scared by concrete, visual dangers depicted in the news whereas older children were reportedly more scared by abstract, verbally communicated threats. Despite multiple controls, news viewing of the War on Iraq was a significant and positive predictor of children's heightened safety concerns but not behavioral manifestations of upset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pamment, James. American Strategic Communication in Iraq: the "Rapid Reaction Media Team". Conference Papers -- International Communication Association; 2009 Annual Meeting, p1-23, 23p

The purpose of this paper is to interpret an American military media strategy designed for the Iraq war from a perspective drawing on recent theoretical discussions of space and time. The material consists of a short white paper that was declassified under the Freedom of Information Act and published by the NSA in 2007. It outlines a 'Rapid Reaction Media Team' which was tasked with designing and implementing the US-led media system at the onset of war in March 2003. Despite aiming to create a 'balanced and fair' public service television network equivalent to the BBC or PBS, the $100 million budget was derived from the $87.5 billion military budget, with the Department of Defense overseeing implementation. Hence there was a fundamental contradiction between the stated intentions of the network as a provider of balanced news and its broader position within US military objectives. The RRMT plan reveals a series of strategies, inherent conflicts, and assumptions which can be seen to enact forms of structural and symbolic violence complimentary to that of the military. By this, I mean that it sheds light on sophisticated strategies for the 'transposition' of military force to the discursive sphere; for the exertion of violence by other means in US attempts to manage perceptions of the war. In a fundamental sense, the RRMT strategy uses media as an extension of warfare, and this paper will look at how 'actual' violence was transferred from the military battlefield to the discursive. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Penrod, Grant. Letting Loose the Images of War. News Media & the Law; Summer 2004, Vol. 28 (3): 7-9

The article focuses on the U.S. government's ban on media or news coverage of war images. Images of war have the potential to affect public perception and opinion in ways that words alone cannot. The Pentagon's ban on media coverage of the coffins brought to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware looks to many journalists like an effort to control reporting that might bring a negative image to war. As the U.S. military prepared for the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the Pentagon reiterated its policy banning media coverage of the return of soldiers' coffins to the U.S. air bases. Under government pressure, a U.S. military contract employee was fired by her employer for photographing coffins being loaded aboard a transport plane returning to the U.S. The policy of protecting families' privacy has not always been so strictly enforced. One June 21, 2004, an amendment that would have lifted the ban was defeated in the U.S. Senate, 54-39. The public has a strong interest in being able to evaluate the human costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan whereas the interest in access to the Foster photos was diminished by the conclusions of previous investigations. Access to hundreds of photographs of abused prisoners taken by U.S. prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq including the dozen or so leaked to the media create a more difficult and complex situation. [ABSTRACT]

Pfau, Michael, and Haigh, Michel M., and Logsdon, Lindsay, and Perrine, Christopher, et al. Embedded Reporting During the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq: How the Embedding of Journalists Affects Television News Reports, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. Washington: Dec 2005. Vol. 49, Iss. 4; pg. 468

This study compared embedded and nonembedded (unilateral) television news coverage during the invasion and the occupation of Iraq. Content analysis was conducted of ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN news during the invasion and during the occupation examining whether embedded and nonembedded news reports were different and, if so, how. The results revealed that compared to nonembedded reports, embedded network television news stories were more favorable in overall tone toward the military, more favorable in depictions of military personnel, and featured greater use of episodic frames which, as a result, elicited somewhat more positive relational cues. In addition, the results indicated that compared to network news coverage of the occupation, news stories of the invasion were more positive in tone and employed more episodic framing.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Pfau, Michael, and Haigh, Michel, and Gettle, Mitchell, and Donnelly, Michael, et al. Embedding Journalists In Military Combat Units: Impact On Newspaper Story Frames And Tone. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. Columbia: Spring 2004. Vol. 81 (1); pg. 74

This investigation probed whether embedded journalist coverage of the first days of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq produced print news coverage that was either more decontextualized inform or more favorable in tone. Embedded news coverage of the first days of Operation "Iraqi Freedom" was compared to nonembedded, so-called "unilateral" coverage; and print coverage of "Iraqi Freedom " was compared with the first days of U.S. ground operations in Operations "Enduring Freedom" and "Desert Storm." The results indicated that embedded journalists in Operation "Iraqi Freedom" produced news stories that featured more episodic frames, compared to both nonembedded reporters in "Iraqi Freedom" and overall coverage of Operation "Enduring Freedom." The results also revealed that, compared to nonembedded reporting, embedded print coverage of "Iraqi freedom" was more favorable in overall tone toward the military and in depiction of individual troops, but this bias did not produce more positive overall coverage compared to recent conflicts. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Reynolds, Glenn Harlan. Weblogs and journalism: Back to the future? Nieman Reports. Cambridge: Fall 2003. Vol. 57 (3); pg. 81

Allbritton relates his blogging experience in covering the Iraq war with the use of a laptop, satellite phone and reader-generated budget. His B2I Web site brought stories that the mainstream media didn't, stories that were done without any outside pressure being applied.

Ricchiardi, Sherry. Whatever Happened to Iraq? American Journalism Review; Jun-Jul 2008, Vol. 30 Issue 3, p20-27, 8p

This article examines the overall decline of media coverage of the war in Iraq. Armando Acuna, public editor of "The Sacramento Bee," wrote about this in his newspaper, chiding both his publishers for letting coverage slip, and readers for losing interest in a vital story. During the first 10 weeks of 2007, Iraq accounted for 23 percent of the news for network TV news. In 2008, it plummeted to 3 percent during that period. On cable networks it fell from 24 percent to 1 percent, according to a study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robertson, Lori. Images of War. American Journalism Review; Oct-Nov 2004, Vol. 26 (5): 44-51

This article looks at how journalists depict the image of war, particularly the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq which started in 2003. In April 2003, Time magazine published a number of photographs from the Iraq war, each dramatically spread across two full pages. Among them, the image of a dead Iraqi lying in the desert. The photograph was powerful. The man's mouth slightly open, his face fully visible, his body lying on the dry, cracked red earth, a column of U.S. military vehicles in the distance. It was a tragic image of war, but more poetic than graphic. Some argue news executives still are worrying a bit too much about what the public's reaction might be to blood and gore. But most of the journalists interviewed for this article reject the notion that the media shied away from using images of civilian casualties and the like. The images changed as the nature of the conflict changed, they say. Though many believe the U.S. press has crept toward the conservative over the years in its handling of graphic images. It is a decision made easier once everyone sees what other outlets did. U.S. Photojournalist James H. Kenney is not sure the media have become more conservative, but he could not name any U.S. media organization, television or print, that showed material particularly more graphic than what the public saw elsewhere.

Robinson, Piers, and Goddard,Peter, and Parry,Katy. U.K. Media and Media Management During the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. American Behavioral Scientist; Jan 2009, Vol. 52 Issue 5, p678-688, 11p

Media's role in wartime has long been the subject of controversy, marked by claims that media promote, or indeed constrain, military action, and over the impact of patriotism and new technologies on wartime levels of media autonomy. Based on a detailed examination of U.K. press and television coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and of the U.S./U.K. coalition's media briefings, this report summarizes initial findings concerning media management and press content. We show that the coalition consistently promoted the humanitarian case for war, humanitarian operations and `slow but sure' military progress, while U.K. press coverage largely reflected this focus upon military progress, accepting and even promoting the broader humanitarian rationale for war. Nevertheless, we uncovered a degree of media criticism that emerged in response to events outside the coalition's control, such as civilian and military casualties. We also direct readers to further outputs from the project analyzing various aspects of British media coverage of the invasion in greater detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robinson, Piers, and Murray, Craig, and Parry, Katy, and Goddard, Peter. Reporting Dissent in Wartime: British Press, the Anti-War Movement and the 2003 Iraq War. European Journal of Communication; Mar2008, Vol. 23 Issue 1, p7-27, 21p

The 2003 Iraq War was highly controversial in the UK, generating domestic opposition and a widely supported anti-war movement, the Stop the War Coalition. This article assesses the extent to which anti-war protesters were successful at securing positive coverage in the British press immediately before and during the invasion of Iraq. The study shows that, although anti-war protesters received more favourable than unfavourable coverage prior to the war, once the war got under way, a 'support our boys' consensus led to the narrowing of what Daniel Hallin has termed the 'sphere of legitimate controversy' with the anti-war movement relegated to a 'sphere of deviance'. The article also demonstrates that elite-led protest was more successful at influencing newspaper debate than grassroots protest. Overall, the results highlight the problems protest movements have in securing positive media representation during war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ryan, Michael. Mainstream News Media, an Objective Approach, and the March to War in Iraq. Journal of Mass Media Ethics. Provo: 2006. Vol. 21, Iss. 1; pg. 4

Americans were forced to decide during an 18-month period of intense uncertainty whether to invade Iraq as part of the war against terrorism. This article reports compelling evidence that mainstream media between September 2001 and March 2003 failed in their primary responsibility: to provide sound news and commentary on which Americans could base critical decisions about war and peace. One reason is that journalists did not use an objective approach-in part because it had been discredited by media professionals and critics who advocated more activist approaches. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Salih, Abdalla and Abdel, Rahman. The Media and American Invasion of Iraq: A Tale of Two Wars. Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research; 2009, Vol. 2 Issue 1/2, p81-90, 10p

Words play an effective role in determining the impact of media on people's attitudes and reactions to events. And it is known that media can play either a positive or a negative role in people's lives, and the trends of any media are governed by the goals and strategies of those who use and direct the media machinery. This has occurred clearly in the consequences of the tragic events of September 11 2001 and the vital role the media played in that. After the attack on America, a new discourse emerged in the media; this discourse associated the war on Afghanistan, the aftermath of the Taliban defeat and fall of its government with 9/11. This went in tandem with America's invasion and occupation of Iraq, which has significant importance for the deep impact it made on the world in general and in the region in particular. Most importantly, this war has affected the historical and civilized heritage of Iraq. Since, these events have affected the region, their impact have reached the media as well. Then it is of great importance to examine and understand the way media in the region particularly responded to the daily events and developments in Iraq. This article reports an analysis of the discourse used by the media in dealing with the Iraq issue. The discussion focuses primarily on issues pertaining to the general trends of the Arab media in its coverage of events and the specific words used for this purpose, as well as the degree of independence and depth of the coverage. The study is an attempt to raise issues of media discourse analysis and the impact that had on the public's view of the events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schwalbe, Carol, and Silcock, William, and Keith, Susan. Visual Framing of the Early Weeks of the U.S.-Led Invasion of Iraq: Applying the Master War Narrative to Electronic and Print Images. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media; Sep 2008, Vol. 52 Issue 3, p448-465, 18p

A content analysis of 1,822 images from U.S. mainstream media—network and cable television news outlets, news Web sites, newspapers, and news magazines—revealed that the visual framing of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 shifted from conflict to human interest. During the campaign's first 5 weeks, 5 distinct scenarios—shock and awe, conquering troops, hero, victory, and control—often coalesced around iconic images and supported a “master war narrative” identified by other scholars. These visual frames reflected a government-promoted patriotic perspective seen in media content at the outset of previous U.S. wars, from the Civil War through the Gulf War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silcock, William, and Schwalbe, Carol, and Keith, Susan. "Secret" Casualties: Images of Injury and Death in the Iraq War Across Media Platforms. Journal of Mass Media Ethics; Jan-Mar 2008, Vol. 23 Issue 1, p36-50, 15p, 3

This study examined more than 2,500 war images from U.S. television news, newspapers, news magazines, and online news sites during the first five weeks of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and found that only 10% showed injury or death. The paper analyzes which media platforms were most willing to show casualties and offers insights on when journalists should use gruesome war images or keep them secret. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solomon, Norman. Blaming the Media for Bad War News. The Humanist. Washington, DC: May-Jun 2006. Vol. 66, Iss. 3; pg. 35, 2 pgs

Top officials in Pres George W. Bush's administration have often complained that news coverage of Iraq focuses on negative events too much and fails to devote enough attention to positive developments, yet the White House rarely picks direct fights with US media outlets during the war because for the most part, Pres Bush leaves it to others to scapegoat the media. Solomon criticizes Pres Bush and his administration for evading the media and using the war backers to blame the news media on his behalf. [ABSTRACT]

Stringer, Sharon. Perceptions of a small-town newspaper's war coverage. Grassroots Editor; Spring 2005, Vol. 46 (1): 20-23

The article reports that as the role of media in public education continues to be defined and the number of media outlets increases, small-town newspapers must finds ways to maintain readership loyalty and develop new customers. While many small, community newspapers focus much of their attention on local issues; readers have a special interest in news development during important news events, such as wartime. So, publishers and editors who understand their readers must find ways to meet readership needs during important news events. For example, in a random sample of 378 rural Pennsylvania voters' perceptions of the effectiveness of media coverage of the 2003 Iraqi war, it was found that more than one-third of the respondents read the local newspaper daily. Less than half indicated that they rely mostly on television for information about issues important to them. Seventeen percent of the respondents read the newspaper once in a while and a surprising 6 percent admitted to never reading the newspaper. Findings also indicate that more than half of the respondents agreed that broadcast media tends to entertain more than inform or educate, while less than one-third indicated that newspapers functioned as an entertainment vehicle.

US: Is The Problem The PR, Or The Policy? Global Information Network, New York; Sep 14, 2006. pg. 1

Print journalists didn't perform much better. A May 2005 review by Los Angeles Times writer James Rainey of the coverage of a six- month period -- when 559 U.S. and Western ally soldiers died in Iraq -- by six major U.S. newspapers and two popular newsmagazines found that "readers of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Washington Post did not see a single picture of a dead serviceman."
"[Donald Rumsfeld]'s complaints are an interesting twist of the truth since the reality is that the United States has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on media campaigns that have been spectacularly ineffective," [Sheldon Rampton] told IPS in a telephone interview. "That the enemy has been more effective in communicating its message to the world is not so much a reflection of their media savvy as it is on the ineffective message of the United States.
With things continuing to spiral out of control in Iraq, the [Bush] administration has once again decided that it's a public relations problem; a question of propaganda, not policy. Around the same time that Rumsfeld was on the road railing about anti-war appeasers and confused critics that were enabling terrorism, and how much better the terrorists were in handling the media, the Washington Post reported that "U.S. military leaders in Baghdad have put out for bid a two-year, $20 million public relations contract that calls for extensive monitoring of U.S. and Middle Eastern media in an effort to promote more positive coverage of news from Iraq." [ABSTRACT]

Wojdynski, Bartosz. The Interactive Newspaper: Online Multimedia and the Framing of the Iraq War. Conference Papers - International Communication Association; 2009 Annual Meeting, p1, 37p, 8 Charts

Online multimedia platforms have allowed news organizations to cover the Iraq War in a more vivid and interactive manner than previous conflicts. This study examined the utilization of multimedia story types by U.S. newspaper Web sites in covering the Iraq War in 2007, and its role in framing aspects of the War. A total of 201 photo galleries, audio slideshows, interactive graphics, and interactive packages were analyzed from the 100 most-visited U.S. newspaper sites. Dominant textual and visual frames were coded for each story, along with framing dimensions including main subject, time and space. The study concluded that human interest framing dominated multimedia coverage, although the extent of such framing differed between multimedia story types. While there were no significant differences in framing along story platform, photo galleries and slideshows constituted a majority of the sample. 72 percent of stories utilized a human interest textual frame, and 81.1 percent of stories featured a human interest visual frame. Multimedia coverage of the war primarily told the stories of individual U.S. stories and their families. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wolfe, Arnold, and Swanson, Jeromy, and Wrona, Stacy. What the American people deserve from American journalism during wartime. Journalism Studies; Feb 2008, Vol. 9 Issue 1, p38-56, 19p

From a First Amendment theoretical perspective, the freedoms constitutionally guaranteed the US media are bound to expectations that they will deliver the "widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources" (Associated Press v. United States, 1945, p. 20). Analyses of two 2005 reports on the Iraq War posted on the Internet by two prominent US news organizations, however, show that they are presenting Americans with pro-Bush administration, anti-"insurgent," pro-war readings of the events reported. In light of these analyses, the "performance" of the US texts in meeting First Amendment obligations is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yang, Jin. One War, Three Pictures: A Cross-Country Analysis of the 2003 Iraq War. Conference Papers - International Communication Association; 2008 Annual Meeting, p1, 32p, 9 Charts

This study employed the framing technique and compared the newspapers coverage of the 2003 Iraq War across three countries: US, China and India. Six national dailies from the three countries (i.e. the New York Times, the Washington Post, the People's Daily, China Daily, The Times of India and the Hindu) were randomly sampled and a total of 178,746 words were content analyzed. The study found that three presses were all ethnocentric in covering the war for their respective readers. US presses focused on war efforts and deemphasized antiwar topic; highlighted US sources and marginalized middle-east sources; selected neutral as the dominant attitude and marched US readers side by side with the US government to the war. China's presses emphasized the topic of war efforts but from the perspective of diplomatic effort for ending the war, which differed from US presses. China presented a wider spectrum of sources but still comparatively featured Chinese sources more than others. Antiwar attitude was more obvious in China's presses than in US presses and economic effect was more of its concern, which echoed China's government stand in the war. India's presses took a more critical attitude toward the war than the Indian government. With the topic of antiwar as the dominant topic, Indian sources as the dominant source, antiwar attitude more obvious than US, India more concerned of the political effect of the war, Indian presses presented a different picture and voiced a different perspective. The implications of the relationship between media and government were discussed in the study. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yang, Jin. U.S., Chinese Newspapers Frame Iraq War Differently. Newspaper Research Journal; Summer 2008, Vol. 29 Issue 3, p80-93, 14p

This comparison finds that the U.S. papers adopted episodic frames while Chinese papers adopted thematic frames by focusing on the larger context such as pre-war motivation and post-war impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young, Sally.The broadcast political interview and strategies used by politicians: how the Australian prime minister promoted the Iraq War.
Media, Culture & Society; Sep 2008, Vol. 30 Issue 5, p623-640, 18p

This article seeks to identify strategies used by politicians in broadcast media interviews. It does so by focusing on a case study of the Australian Prime Minister John Howard and his strategies in interviews at a key political moment - when justifying his position on the domestically unpopular policy of Australia participating in the Iraq War in 2003. Howard used five key strategies in his media interviews: boring interviewers and his audience; repetition (staying on message); creating, and capitalizing on, an atmosphere of fear and insecurity; controlling the flow of the interview; and evasion. Examining these strategies and their impact allows us to reflect more broadly on the value of the political interview today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zayani, Mohamed, and Ayish, Muhammad. Arab Satellite Television And Crisis Reporting: Covering the Fall of Baghdad. The International Communication Gazette. Deventer: Oct-Dec 2006. Vol. 68, Iss. 5/6; pg. 473

The question as to what dictates the choices of various media outlets and what guides the professional practices of journalists when reporting on international military crises is particularly pertinent when considering Arab media, who have been claiming a space in the global media scene by virtue of their intense and often controversial coverage of wars and crises in the postSeptember 11 era. This article is concerned with the coverage of the war against Iraq. It examines how Arab media reported the fall of Baghdad and the collapse of the regime of Saddam Hussein. The study focuses on how three pan-Arab satellite news channels that have been at the forefront of the coverage of the war against Iraq - Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya and Abu Dhabi Channel-handled the news from a narrative and visual perspective. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]